Committment to winning

[Fred Dowler]

Here is a question. 2 choices.... Would you rather have a terrible football program and every other program be very good or have a very good football program and the rest of the sports bad? Dont think about our athletic department now because every answer would be a winning football team because the rest of our sports are bad right now and one team winning making a splash would be nice.

I'll be candid in that I just happen to have a tough time seeing TU being able to get it done year in and year out in very sustained fashion in football and against legit tough schedules. If they play schedules in the 2013 schedule all of the time then maybe so, but doing that is not going to help turn numbers of fans on. I look at the story with Rice or SMU or TCU or Tulsa and, really, those are TU's closest brethren. It just seems like it's very tough to get things going with much consistency. It would take a ton of commitment to the effort, which I doubt that TU is anywhere near being really ready to make, and still I don't know that that's a guarantee.

Plus, to me, it's hard to say and especially with having seen spurts of winning in TU football several times in the past that turned out for whatever reason to be brief that what you saw last fall was a sign of great things to come or just a product of a schedule that wasn't that challenging.

The road to being like Duke or Wake Forest or Vanderbilt OTOH is, in my eyes, an easier one. SMU may well be on it right now for their part. Tulsa has had some eras of productivity in bball, too. Then, we don't need to go into the myriad of other solid bball school programs in the conference. I just really don't understand what seems to be TU's sheer reluctance to try to make any kind of effort to get something done in bball.

I think that TU is sort of hooked up with the wrong significant other in pouring tons into baseball, which I don't believe can really deliver a whole lot maybe unless you're LSU in the 1990s, and then TU's baseball program has hit the skids big time. Best to not be throwing good money after bad there.

[JDTulane]

The easy answer is football, football, football. More eyes, more money, better conference, hapoier local fans, happier alumni. Football drives the bus. Imo other sports would benefit from very good fb eventually. Football, football, football.

Basketball is easier to do in a shorter time frame but the top out is less than fb ceiling

[Fred Dowler]

The easy answer is football, football, football. More eyes, more money, better conference, hapoier local fans, happier alumni. Football drives the bus. Imo other sports would benefit from very good fb eventually. Football, football, football.

Basketball is easier to do in a shorter time frame but the top out is less than fb ceiling

TU being like Duke or Wake Forest would still be something a whole lot better than where TU is right now.

[Dave breslin]

OUG---good points. It took numbnuts only 15years to implement the obvious things that D1 dictates. If this was reality ,we lost the war 12 years ago. We all would like to be optimistic because we respect the leadership---but!!!!!

[Eaglewave]

Injuries or no injuries, we are not good enough to cut spring practice short. There was something that those returning kids,(who lost to UTSA, USA and FAU), could have done to improve things for next season. Cutting practices due to injuries and lack of depth tells me that every returning player knows the entire playbook and can run every play without a problem.

[tpstulane]

Injuries or no injuries, ... Cutting practices due to injuries and lack of depth tells me that every returning player knows the entire playbook and can run every play without a problem.

I believe they did walk throughs on campus which would involve learning the playbook. Just no hitting.

[Eaglewave]

Injuries or no injuries, ... Cutting practices due to injuries and lack of depth tells me that every returning player knows the entire playbook and can run every play without a problem.

I believe they did walk throughs on campus which would involve learning the playbook. Just no hitting.

On those two canceled days?

[tpstulane]

Injuries or no injuries, ... Cutting practices due to injuries and lack of depth tells me that every returning player knows the entire playbook and can run every play without a problem.

I believe they did walk throughs on campus which would involve learning the playbook. Just no hitting.

On those two canceled days?

Don't know exactly but they did do some walk throughs. Here's CJ's quote

Depth is hot and cold throughout Tulane's lineup, so coach Curtis Johnson cut out the team's final two days of scheduled practice and concluded with a walk-through on campus. Johnson said "a lot of injuries," namely to sophomore linebacker Nico Marley (dislocated left elbow)

[#41]

Injuries or no injuries, we are not good enough to cut spring practice short. There was something that those returning kids,(who lost to UTSA, USA and FAU), could have done to improve things for next season. Cutting practices due to injuries and lack of depth tells me that every returning player knows the entire playbook and can run every play without a problem.

The idea that a day or two of spring practice will make any discernible difference on the finished product that takes the field next season is laughable.

[TXWave88]

It shouldn't make a difference in the fall. But if you claim/believe that, then whats the benefit of extra bowl game practices? The redshirts and non starters wont see the field for at least a year.

Cutting 2 physical days and replacing them with mental days is not a big problem to me if that is what happened. When mistakes are made on the field, they are usually caused by mental mistakes. Buuuuuut, if we have a bunch of misalignments and missed assignments in the fall, then I see no problem for griping if we eliminated 2 spring practices. The coaches are only allowed so many days, hours, etc on the field with their players. No matter what, that time should be utilized the best way possible.

[lurker123]

Injuries or no injuries, we are not good enough to cut spring practice short. There was something that those returning kids,(who lost to UTSA, USA and FAU), could have done to improve things for next season. Cutting practices due to injuries and lack of depth tells me that every returning player knows the entire playbook and can run every play without a problem.

The idea that a day or two of spring practice will make any discernible difference on the finished product that takes the field next season is laughable.

We all understand practice time matters and grinding also often beats talent. But let's go back to the original post and the title of this thread. It directly said that because the Heisman Trophy winner threw 50 more passes in a spring game than Tulane's potential starting starting QB did in Tulane's last scrimmage well CJ/the program/the university/the entire campus must not have a "commitment to winning." To me that was the wild over-the-top "woe is us" attitude that pervades too many posts and posters here.

We can all disagree about the FSU approach here compared to Tulane but how do you think Winston's back-ups feel? At backup QB you ride the pine like no other position except maybe second string PK or punter. You think one of those guys might have liked a little PT in an intrasquad competition? He certainly isn't going to get it come fall.

The FSU coach obviously just won a national championship so he knows more than any of us and maybe he was just sending a message to Winston and the baseball coach about who and what pays the bills at FSU. I think perhaps CJ's approach was more effective here in my humble opinion.

[Fred Dowler]

Injuries or no injuries, we are not good enough to cut spring practice short. There was something that those returning kids,(who lost to UTSA, USA and FAU), could have done to improve things for next season. Cutting practices due to injuries and lack of depth tells me that every returning player knows the entire playbook and can run every play without a problem.

The idea that a day or two of spring practice will make any discernible difference on the finished product that takes the field next season is laughable.

We all understand practice time matters and grinding also often beats talent. But let's go back to the original post and the title of this thread. It directly said that because the Heisman Trophy winner threw 50 more passes in a spring game than Tulane's potential starting starting QB did in Tulane's last scrimmage well CJ/the program/the university/the entire campus must not have a "commitment to winning." To me that was the wild over-the-top "woe is us" attitude that pervades too many posts and posters here.

We can all disagree about the FSU approach here compared to Tulane but how do you think Winston's back-ups feel? At backup QB you ride the pine like no other position except maybe second string PK or punter. You think one of those guys might have liked a little PT in an intrasquad competition? He certainly isn't going to get it come fall.

The FSU coach obviously just won a national championship so he knows more than any of us and maybe he was just sending a message to Winston and the baseball coach about who and what pays the bills at FSU. I think perhaps CJ's approach was more effective here in my humble opinion.

When you have coached a team to a championship you obviously have methods that are more effective than the methods of coaches who have not coached a team to a championship.

[OUG]

Injuries or no injuries, we are not good enough to cut spring practice short. There was something that those returning kids,(who lost to UTSA, USA and FAU), could have done to improve things for next season. Cutting practices due to injuries and lack of depth tells me that every returning player knows the entire playbook and can run every play without a problem.

The idea that a day or two of spring practice will make any discernible difference on the finished product that takes the field next season is laughable.

We all understand practice time matters and grinding also often beats talent. But let's go back to the original post and the title of this thread. It directly said that because the Heisman Trophy winner threw 50 more passes in a spring game than Tulane's potential starting starting QB did in Tulane's last scrimmage well CJ/the program/the university/the entire campus must not have a "commitment to winning." To me that was the wild over-the-top "woe is us" attitude that pervades too many posts and posters here.

We can all disagree about the FSU approach here compared to Tulane but how do you think Winston's back-ups feel? At backup QB you ride the pine like no other position except maybe second string PK or punter. You think one of those guys might have liked a little PT in an intrasquad competition? He certainly isn't going to get it come fall.

The FSU coach obviously just won a national championship so he knows more than any of us and maybe he was just sending a message to Winston and the baseball coach about who and what pays the bills at FSU. I think perhaps CJ's approach was more effective here in my humble opinion.

When you have coached a team to a championship you obviously have methods that are more effective than the methods of coaches who have not coached a team to a championship.

CJ has a hand full of rings that would disagree with your characterization of him.

By the way, the reason that Winston throwing 50 passes in a spring game was news at all is because it is so unorthodox, not because its what a normal team committed to winning would do. In this case, it was done because he didn't get any reps during spring practice itself.

Again, this "everything Tulane does is wrong" regardless of the context is what is so frustrating. There's PLENTY of stuff that Tulane is doing wrong without having to invent and imagine new things.

[DrBox]

When you have coached a team to a championship you obviously have methods that are more effective than the methods of coaches who have not coached a team to a championship.

Good lord.

[winwave]

The NCAA is implementing new rules that take effect this summer. It allows coaches to observe the workouts and have contact w/the players. Perfect timing for the situation were in where we will likely be playing a freshman QB.

http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/sp ... forward-to

It's about ULL but you can skip to the part about the rule changes.